Railway car side wall



Dec. 2, 1947. e. w. cox

RAILWAY CAR SIDE WALL Filed Feb. 28. 1944 k E P INVENTOR! George WCcZ Patented Dec. 2, 1947 2 RAILWAY can SIDE WALL George W. Cox, Floral Park, N. Y., assignor to Standard Railway Equipment Manufacturing Company, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Delaware Application February 28, 1944, Serial No. 524,322

5 Claims. 1

The invention relates to open top railway cars and more particularly to the wall construction for such cars. The wall performs two functions. It constitutes the load retaining means of the car and it acts as a girder which transmits the weight of the lading to the body bolster and thence to the trucks.

There are a great many open top cars in service in which the vertical side posts or stakes are mounted on the outside of the car with the load retaining sheets secured to the inside surface thereof and extending between adjacent posts. This construction limits the capacity of the car unnecessarily. Service conditions dictate the maximum width to which a car may be built which is, in the construction heretofore described, the width over the stakes. Some cars have been built with the stakes on the inside of the car and the sheets extending to the maximum possible width. This construction utilizes all of the available capacity but has a distinct disadvantage in that the stakes are subject to corrosion caused by contact with the lading. In order to with stand this corrosion the stakes must be of a heavy section. This is undesirable because it increases the non-revenue load which has to be hauled. It is an object of the invention to increase the cubical capacity of the car and also to position the greater part of the stakes on the outside of the car to avoid said corroding influence.

It is possible to increase the capacity of the car by pressing outwardly projecting panels in the wall sheets of the car between the posts.

It is a further object of the invention to increase the height and width of the heap load; that is, that portion of the lading which projects above the top chord of the car. This is done by moving the top chord outwardly from the vertical plane of the bottom chord. If the width of the base of the heap be increased it is then possible to increase its height and, therefore, its volume so that another object of the invention is to increase the cubical capacity of the car by increasing the volume of the heap load.

The side of a car forms a girder comprising a top chord, lower chord or side sill, and struts or stakes extending between the upper chord and lower chord. The lading usually hauled in an open top car is of a type which exerts a horizontal pressure against the side and end walls of the car. It is, therefore, necessary that the stakes function as vertical beams supported at the lower end only to resist this horizontal thrust. Although the top chord offers some restraint to the stake it is not very efiective due to the non-rigid character and great length of the top chord. The stakes, therefore, function effectively as cantilever beams secured rigidly to the lower chord of the car and loaded at a distance above said lower chord. The maximum force occurs at the point chord; a

The stakes formed as herein illustrated have their outer surfaces vertically disposedand in the planes of the outer' surfaces of the panels. The

inner surfaces of the stakes slope downwardly and inwardly from adjacent the inner side of the top chord to the vertical plane of the outer side of the bottom chord at approximately the line of maximum force imposed by a plastic lading thereagainst and thence downwardly in said plane to and overlapping the bottom chord, thus providing stakes with their maximum strengths from said line of maximum force to their places of maximum stresses. The stakes or members form stilfeners for the girder; stakes for the retaining wall and beams for the retaining wall betweenthe chords.

Consequently, it is a still further object of the invention to increase the strength of said stake by providing said section of increased depth to. thereby increase the strength of the wall as a whole.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear in the following description thereof.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings forming part of this application and wherein like reference characters indicate like parts: i

Fig. 1 is a section on the line l-l of Fig. 2-in the direction of the arrows.

Fig. 2 is an inside perspective view of a por-' tion of a hopper or gondola car wall.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary perspective sectional view on line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 1 of a modified form of post construction.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2 the parts of the car are the upper chord 2, the lower chord or side sill 3 load retaining wall sheets 4, stake 5 preferably formed integral with the wall sheets 4 and extending between the upper chord 2 and lower chord 3. The wall sheets 4 have pressed therein outwardly projecting central panels 6 extending substantially between adjacent stakes 5 and between the upper 2 and lower 3 chords. p

The inner face of the upper chord 2 is spaced outwardly from the plane of the outer face of the lower chord 3.

l0 which is secured to the outside of the vertical portion I I of the side sill3. The upper marginal portions of the wall sheets are formed with a similar flange H. which is secured to the vertically disposed arm I3 of the upper chord 2. The paneled portions 6 of the wall sheets are disposed vertically in the same plane as the bulb portion [4 of the upper chord 2.

The stake 5 is formed preferably by flanging and reflanging IS the vertical marginal por- The lower marginal por-- tions of the sheets 4 are formedwith a flange tions 16 of the wall sheets 4. It will be noted, especially jin'Fig; Lthat because the inner surface of the upper chord 2 is disposed outwardly from the vertical plane of the outer surface of the lower chord 3, the vertical marginal flanges l6 of the sheets 4 will be downwardly and inwardly inclined from the upper chord to a line which approximates the line of maxi! mum force imposed upon the wall by a plastic lading, such as sand, coal or the like when the car is loaded to its full cubical capacity, which line is approximately one-third the length of the stak upwardly from the bottom thereof. From said line downwardly the flanges N3 of the sheets are vertical and in a plane with the outer surface of the portion H of the bottom chord. The reflanges I5 of the post, however, are vertically disposed their entire lengths asv clearly shown in Fig. l. in the plane of the outer suriace of the bulb ll of the upper chord 2'. Consequently' the great strength of the beam at the aforesaid line of maximum force. is main tained downwardly to the attachment of the. stakes to the lowerchord to. strengthen the. stakes. as cantilever beams Thus. the outer surface of the car wall is vertically disposed and the inner surface, generally speaking, is downwardly and. inwardly inclined, and the depths of the posts 5 increase from the top. thereof to. said line, thereby providing a car wall having its maximum strength adjacent the line. of maximum force. when said car is loaded to its full cubical capacity with a plastic ladingi In. the modification shown in Fig. 4 the. construction. of the top chord 2, bottom chord 3, and wall sheets are identical with the modificae tion previously described, the only difference being that the stake 20, formed by fianging and reflanging the abutting vertical margins of the wall sheets. 4 issuch that; said marginal flanges are downwardly and inwardly inclined their entire lengths from the topchord to the bottom chord. This form of. stake may, in. some cases, be preferable to having the. incline stop at the line of maximum force under a plasticv load, when the car is fully loaded, such for example, as when the car is turned upside down in an unloading machine the load might run out easier under certain conditions.

The. accompanying drawings illustrate the preferred form of the invention, though it is. to. he understood that the invention is not limited tothe exact details of construction shown and described, as it is obvious that various modifications thereof, within the scope. of the claims, will occur to persons skilledin the art.

I claim:

1:. A side wall for an open top railway car comprising a lower chord, an upper chord spaced outwardly from the vertical plane of the, lower chord and wall sheets extending downwardly nd inwardly between said upper and lower chords, the upper and lower margins, of said sheets being secured to said upper and lower chords, respectively;. the adjacent vertical margins of said: sheets being formed with outwardlyllnol'iec ingxflan es; extending between and secured to said chords to function as stakes therebetween, the lower portions. ofsaid stakes: being; of. greater depth than the upper portions. thereof:,.said stakes. increasing in depth from the upper chord to, the place of maximum force thereupon causedby a; plastic lading in the car.

A. side; wall for an. open top railway car 4 comprising a lower chord, an upper chord spaced outwardly from the vertical plane of the lower chord and wall sheets extending downwardly and inwardly between said upper and lower chords, the upper and lower margins of said sheets being secured to said upper and lower chords, respectively, the adjacent vertical margins of said sheets being formed with outwardly projecting flanges extending between and secured to said chords to function as stakes therebetween, said stakes increasing in depth from the top chord to the line of maximum force thereupon as beams between said chords when said car is loaded to its full cubical capacity with a plastic load and being of uniform depth from said line to their respective attachment to. the lower chord to strengthen said stakes as cantilever beams.

3. A side wall for an open top railway car comprising a lower chord, an upper chord spaced outwardly from the. vertical plane of the lower chord and wall sheets extending do-wn wardly and inwardly between said upper and lower chords, the upper and lower margins of said sheets being secured to said upper and lower chords, respectively, the adjacent vertical margins of said sheets being formed with outwardly projecting flanges extending between and secured to said. chords to function as stakes therebetween, the outer edges of said stakes being vertically disposed, the lower approximate one-third of said stakes being of greater depth than the upper portions thereof to strengthen said stakes as beams between said chords and as cantilever beams.

4, A metallic structure for forming a girder and retaining wall for a railway car comprising a lower chord, an upper chord spaced outwardly from the vertical plane of the lower chord, members extending between and secured to,- said' chords forming stiffeners for the girder and beams for the retaining wall, said members increasing in depth from the upper chord to the lineof maximum force thereupon as beams between said chords when said car is loaded to full cubical capacity with a plastic lading and being; of uniform depth from said line to the lower chord to strengthen said members as beams between said chords and as cantilever beams, and wall sheets. extending between and secured to said members and chords.

5. A metallic. structure for forming a girder and. retaining wall for a railway car comprising a lower chord, an upper chord, members l extending between and secured to said chords.

forming the, stiffeners for the girder and beams for the retaining wall, said members increas- REFERENCES CITED.-

The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED. STATES PATENTS Number Name. Date- 2',189.,38'6 Tangerman Feb. 6, 1940 2,040,307 Hart. May 12, I936 Gilpin Feb. 11', 1936" 

